Yamaha CL5 Does Sterling Service

November, 2012

Manchester-based Sterling Event Group (SEG) is a single-source supplier for the corporate, commercial and private event markets which specialises in providing creative, technical and production expertise and skills, using the latest available technology. The latest step in delivering its services has recently been taken with the purchase of a Yamaha CL5 digital mixing console from A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd’s Audio division.

“We already own several Yamaha digital consoles which have been in constant use,” says SEG Project Manager and Head of Sound Ben Marshall. “When looking for a larger digital desk with more onboard features, we were naturally attracted back to Yamaha, as the consoles are reliable and extremely user friendly.”

AC-ET was amongst the first UK Yamaha dealers to take stock of the CL5 console and SEG had arranged for an on-site demonstration with an A.C. Audio representative as soon as it was available.

The CL5 provides a highly intuitive mixing system for a wide range of applications in an extremely compact package, fully expandable via Dante and Yamaha’s Rio3224-D and Rio1608-D i/o rack units racks, one each of which AC-ET also supplied with the console.

Amongst many other features, Ben really likes the multi-track record and playback facility as well as the CL5’s Premium Rack, which comes complete with the Rupert Neve Designs Portico 5033 equaliser and Portico 5043 compressor/limiter, which he says sounds “fantastic”. Up to 16 Premium Rack devices can be assigned, including Yamaha’s ground-breaking VCM technology emulations of other classic analogue devices.

Ben also expressed his liking for the custom fader operations, able to be user-configured and assigned precisely as required. “Since its arrival, it has been in constant use on numerous live music, private and corporate events. All of our regular engineers are really enjoying using the CL5 for live events. It’s a fantastic sounding product at a good price,” he says.